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OC Pastor Saves Shark-Bite Victim

An Orange County family is waiting for the return of their hero, who ran to the aid of a 20-year-old woman whose arm was bitten off by a shark in Hawaii. The pastor and teacher was with a friend on the beach when he rushed into the water to save the German tourist. Hetty Chang reports from Laguna Niguel for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Aug. 16, 2013. (Published Friday, Aug. 16, 2013)

Rick Moore prayed out loud as he pulled a 20-year-old who was bitten by a shark onto a shore this week in Maui.

The female snorkeler, who was bleeding from a severed shoulder, kept saying she was going to die.

But Moore, a 57-year-old teacher and pastor from the Orange County city of Laguna Niguel, wouldn’t have any of it.

"All she had hanging out on her right arm was her bone, and she was in and out of saying these words, 'I'm dying, I'm going to die,'" Moore said. "I kept saying to her, 'No, you're not. We are going to get you to shore. We're going to save you.'"

Moore said he swam through choppy waters with poor visibility after spotting the woman who was screaming for help, blood surrounding her.

"We heard this scream -- this blood-curdling scream -- out in the water, about 75 yards out, and somebody said it's a shark attack and then I just got my fins and ran in," Moore told NBC4 Friday.

Moore jumped into the water, not knowing if danger was still lurking.

"I started thinking to myself, if the shark's around here, what's going to happen now -- I'm going to be the next person, so I kept going as fast as I can," he said.

He pulled the victim in and onto shore where he and others put her into a kayak and called paramedics.

“She was fading away,” Moore said. “She was going to die.”

Jana Witteropp, a German tourist, was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition. Moore said Witteropp was stable Friday afternoon, and making movement with her eyes.

Her right arm was severed below the shoulder, Lee Mainaga, fire services chief at the Maui Fire Department, told the Associated Press. The limb wasn’t recovered.

Moore will return to Laguna Niguel -- where he is a pastor and a physical education teacher -- next week. His wife said he'll be welcomed back a hero.

"I'll never be so happy to see somebody as much as I will to see him come home and be safe," Diane Moore said.

Through tears, Moore told NBC4 he'll appreciate his family "more, more" when he returns home.

It wasn’t clear what type of shark bit Witteropp. Witnesses interviewed didn’t see the animal, said Department of Land and Natural Resources spokeswoman Deborah Ward.

It was the sixth such attack in Hawaii this year through the end of July, including three on Maui, according to a state database. There were 11 shark attacks in the state in 2012.

The last time anyone in Hawaii died from a shark attack was in 2004, when a tiger shark bit a surfer 100 yards off Maui. Prior to that, there was a fatal attack in 1992.

Tiger sharks are the species most often blamed for attacks, but it’s not known why they sometimes bite humans. They may be trying to figure out whether a person could be prey.

To protect against attacks, authorities recommend swimming, snorkeling and surfing with other people. They also say people should avoid the water at dawn and dusk, as this is when some shark species move inshore to eat.